HOOVER, Ala. — Junior running back Derrius Guice doesn’t let the past affect him.
“You have to move on, and you have to do what you gotta do,” he said. “I came up short against Florida last year, and then a few days later, I had 300 rushing yards.”
Nearly eight months after the loss to Florida, Guice has barely thought about that game — it’s a distant memory to him now.
Directly after the game, he went into the locker room, listened to coach Ed Orgeron give a speech to the team and put the game behind him, he said.
Heading into the 2017 season, Guice is out of the shadow of former LSU running back Leonard Fournette and is a clear cut leader for the offense.
When Guice came to LSU as a 17 year old, he had a mentality that few other 17 year olds have, he said.
“I was trying to play,” he said. “I was trying to match Leonard everyday. I was trying to let the coaches know that I’m here for a reason. That’s the mentality I came in here with. I came in knowing I wanted to play. With that type of mentality, you can’t mess around. There’s a time and a place for that. At the football facility, it’s go time.”
Now, a newly 20-year-old Guice has matured and grown in the game. With more games under his belt and more experience on the field, he’s ready to step into his new role as a leader.
He says he feels stronger and fresher approaching the 2017 season, as he says he should each year.
While he took a lot away from the way Fournette played, the most important thing that Guice learned from Fournette was how to grow up fast, he said.
“I need to grow up whether I want to or not,” Guice said. “That is one thing Leonard told me, was you have to grow up and be a man quick in the football business.”
At his first SEC Media Days this year, Guice wasn’t intimidated by the cameras or the spotlight.
“You got all the cameras on you, the lights on you,” he said. “I just feel like a star. [The attention] is not bad. It’s only going to get worse from here. You just have to learn how to prepare for it.”
Guice was thrown into the spotlight last year when Fournette sprained his ankle and limited his playing time. He started six games compared to zero his freshman season and ran in 12 more touchdowns than he had in 2015.
“I didn’t expect that,” Guice said. “No one expected Leonard to have the year he had and fight injuries all year. I barely had any experience from my freshman year. I only had like 40-something carries. It shows that the young guys have to step up.”
Guice rushed a total of 436 yards in 2015 and finished with 928 all-purpose yards, most of them coming from kickoff returns. Fast forward one year, and he started six games and had 1,387 rushing yards.
But until Nov. 19, 2016, Guice hadn’t truly been tested by the game he loves.
“The Florida game was my first big test,” Guice said. “After Leonard stopped playing as much, it was my first big test. Coach was just telling me that in life you’re going to get knocked down, and you gotta get back up. He trusted me, and that’s why he fed me and fed me the next day. He knew how bad I wanted it. That’s why he did it, and I ended up having 37 carries and having all those yards. He knew how bad I wanted to go fight for my brothers and tell everybody that I’m not a mistake.”
Guice broke the school record for most rushing yards in a game with 285 against Texas A&M, a week after the loss to Florida.
Under new offensive coach Matt Canada, similar performances from Guice will be expected for the 2017 season as well.
“Everything that we do is going to be based around our best player, Derrius Guice,” Orgeron said. “We feel we have one of the best running back and one of the best offensive players in the country coming back.”
Orgeron even went on to compare Guice to Warren Sapp, a former defensive tackle for Miami. While the leadership role is new to Guice, Orgeron doesn’t see anything new from the All-American.
“Derrius has always been a leader to me by the way he practices,” Orgeron said. “Nothing has changed. I see him a little more mature now. He comes up to my office and talks about things, and I think it’s going to be great for him that he’s not under the shadow of Leonard this year. I expect him to shine.”
On Monday, Guice was named to the Maxwell Award watchlist which is given to America’s College Player of the Year.
Heading into his junior season, the expectations for Guice are high. He is out of the shadows with added pressure, but as he ever so simply puts it, “just being with my brothers every day, that’s the biggest thing to me.”
Junior running back Derrius Guice speaks to the media about the upcoming season at the 2017 SEC Media Days on July 10 in Hoover, Alabama.
